Schroder Investment Management Group Has $239.66 Million Stock Holdings in Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO)

Schroder Investment Management Group increased its holdings in shares of Moody’s Co. (NYSE:MCO) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 506,282 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,775 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group’s holdings in Moody’s were worth $239,659,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Avitas Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Moody’s by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Avitas Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,803 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,327,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 451 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $213,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Moody’s by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. now owns 746 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $353,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional grew its holdings in shares of Moody’s by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,113 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $527,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its stake in Moody’s by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 1,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $696,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.11% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Moody’s

In other news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 281 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.62, for a total value of $133,087.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,314,236.28. This represents a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 1,124 shares of company stock valued at $552,193 over the last ninety days. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MCO. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Moody’s from $459.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Moody’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Moody’s from $510.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Moody’s from $481.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Moody’s in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $527.00.

Moody’s Stock Down 1.7 %

Moody’s stock opened at $461.09 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $82.95 billion, a PE ratio of 40.91, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.34. Moody’s Co. has a 12-month low of $360.05 and a 12-month high of $531.93. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $485.56 and its 200 day moving average is $480.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.35. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Moody’s had a net margin of 29.03% and a return on equity of 58.94%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Moody’s Co. will post 13.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moody’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. This is an increase from Moody’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. Moody’s’s payout ratio is currently 33.36%.

Moody’s Company Profile

Moody’s Corporation operates as an integrated risk assessment firm worldwide. It operates in two segments, Moody’s Analytics and Moody’s Investors Services. The Moody’s Analytics segment develops a range of products and services that support the risk management activities of institutional participants in financial markets.